


away

by rivernyx (orphan_account)



Category: VIXX
Genre: (But like really really vague), Alternate Universe - Orphanage, I'm sorry Haebin I love you, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, M/M, Not quite romance but uh, because of course
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 18:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14879187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/rivernyx
Summary: "Navy blue," Hongbin says, and Hakyeon smiles because that's how it always is. Hongbin smiles too, smiles at the memory, smiles at their little dreams and their little fantasies and their little delusions. "A navy blue car,"





	away

**Author's Note:**

> here's a little something i wrote in like,,, a couple hours hshshs. enjoy, everyone ^^

 There's a digital clock glowing in the darkness of the shared bedroom; it blinks on and blinks off, flickering in the otherwise pitch black darkness, casting a rather dim red shine on the walls and floor and furniture and sleeping boys with ages ranging from five 'til thirteen.

 It's silent. Deathly silent. Not even the sweet murmurs of the breeze or the sound of a mouse and its tiny legs scuffling across the creaky wooden floors could be heard. Not even the children's soft, even breathing or small snores could pierce the thick, pregnant silence.

 Until.

 "Hakyeon?" a voice whispers when the lights blinks out. Soft and prepubescent, low and strained from trying to keep the volume down. There's a second voice- a tired grunt, a groggy moan, mumbling out slurred strung-together words. Sheets rustling as the digital-clock-light blinks on and someone shuffles in his sheets, worming out of a thin blanket cocoon.

 "Hongbinnie?" the second asks, voice heavy and sleepy and bordering on a yawn. "It's," the red light flickers on, "Two-thirteen, what are you doing awake? Sister Haebin will get mad."

 A beat. Two. The sheets move again.

 "I can't sleep,"

 Another bout of nothing but complete silence. The digital clock gleams and tells them it's two-fourteen.

 "Do you want to play?"

 

 Hongbin was five when he'd first been brought to the orphanage, his large doe eyes glossed over with tears and confusion, his hand trembling in Sister Sojin's much larger, much warmer ones. It was a winter evening. Cold and cutting and merciless. It was five years ago.  
  
 Hakyeon was the first to talk to him. Hakyeon, bright as sunshine, warm as the hot chocolate Sister Hyeyeon makes for them sometimes on especially cruel winter nights. Hakyeon who helped him when Sister Haebin gave Hongbin a mop and a rag and told him to stop crying, Jesus Christ.

 "Do you know who your parents are?" Hongbin had asked him once, and Hakyeon had laughed. Laughed so easily it nearly scared Hongbin to death, almost made him run behind a table leg or a wardrobe or Sister Sojin.

 "No, I don't," Hakyeon then said, strangely sad and sober, soaking his rag and dragging it across the surface of a table. "I don't. Of course I don't."

 Hakyeon was eight. He was a sunny day, but sometimes rainclouds would drown out the sunniness as well.

  
  
 Everyone is supposed to be awake by six am. Everyone's supposed to be in the dining room by six am, segregated by age groups and gender, lining up neatly and waiting for the Sisters' instructions. It's five fifty-eight, and Hongbin's pulling a dirty white shirt on, shyly avoiding everyone's eyes.

 Everyone's afraid of dressing in front of other people, because people like to pretend that everything here is okay. Hongbin licks his lips and looks up when he's done, smiling a little when he sees Hakyeon looking at him with a soft smile on his face and a warmth in his eyes.

 Five fifty-nine, the boys line up according to height and filter out of the bedroom, taking their places at their respective tables. Nobody sits, not until Sister Hyeyeon comes in and tells them they can eat.

 In perfect sync they say thank you and sit and eat. They have bland rice porridge for breakfast, and Hongbin numbly scoops some in his mouth, not too slow but not too fast either. Sister Haebin comes in, and everyone freezes, stands, says, "Good morning, sister," and stays still until they're told to do otherwise.

 Sister Haebin nods at them, but she's looking straight at Hongbin, and it takes all of his willpower not to move a muscle.

 "Mr. Lee, may I have a word," she says, and he nods pathetically, ignoring everyone's dead eyes boring into him as he makes his way to the front and follows Sister Haebin to her office. Everyone else is told to sit and eat. Hongbin's share remains untouched for the rest of the morning.

 

 "Do you want to play?"

 Hongbin looks up at Hakyeon's voice, and he smiles shakily at the gesture, hands and legs trembling as he makes his way to sit next to Hakyeon on the old, dingy, generic bed with a thin mattress and moth-eaten sheets and a pillow as flat as paper.

 "Where do you want to go?" Hakyeon asks slowly. He doesn't ask what happened, doesn't ask why Sister Haebin was angry, doesn't ask if Hongbin is okay. Hongbin closes his eyes and breathes for a moment.

 He shouldn't cry. Big boys don't cry. And he's a big boy now! He's ten years old! Big boys work hard and impress the couples and get adopted.

 Hongbin says, "Away," and that's all Hakyeon needs. He picks Hongbin's hand up, humming a soft tune under his breath.

 "A brand new car," Hakyeon starts, "Found it outside the orphanage. Keys are left there, miraculously. What color?"

 "Navy blue," Hongbin says, and Hakyeon smiles because that's how it always is. Hongbin smiles too, smiles at the memory, smiles at their little dreams and their little fantasies and their little delusions. "A navy blue car,"

 "White streaks," Hakyeon continues for him.

 Hongbin nods, adds, "No roof. One of those cool cars!" and Hakyeon laughs despite knowing everything Hongbin is about to say. "Nobody in the backseat. Just you and me- and random stuff in the back."

 "Sounds like fun," Hakyeon says, "Where do you wanna go this time?"

 "I don't know,"

 Hongbin thinks for a moment. Hakyeon waits.

 "A little house, the countryside, the prairie. Anywhere. Away,"

 

 "You're turning fourteen soon, aren't you?"

 Hongbin can feel Hakyeon look up from sewing the torn tablecloth, glancing at Hongbin across the old, usually unused sitting room, who is busy arranging the books on the shelf. "Not for a few months," he says, and Hongbin shrugs.

 "Whatever. You'll be rooming with the bigger boys soon." Hongbin mutters, stepping away from the bookshelf as the books are already immaculate and taking the broom.

 "Aw," Hakyeon says, "Will you miss me?"

 Hongbin reddens and keeps his eyes on the dust being swept off the floor. "I don't know," Hongbin mutters, "Will I?" his hands shake around the wood, and he swears under his breath, frustrated at the way his hands are trembling so much.

 Hakyeon laughs a little.

 Hongbin doesn't look at him at all, cheeks burning from strange embarrassment.

 "Adoption Day is coming soon, too," he says wistfully. Hakyeon goes silent.

 "Do you think my parents will be there?" Hongbin asks.

 Hakyeon snorts and looks at his embroidery, "Do you think mine will?"

 Hongbin looks down at his hands. He picks up the dustpan and empties it out into the trash. Hakyeon finishes the tablecloth and splays it across the little coffee table.

 "Hakyeon," Hongbin says, "A brand new car..."

 

 Hongbin's curled up in bed, hugging his flat pillow close to his chest, not caring about the discomfort. He's shaking, can still see the fury in Sister Haebin's eyes, see the way Jaehwan had trembled underneath her gaze. He doesn't know the details, doesn't want to.

 It'd happened to him, too- today. With Adoption Day drawing closer and closer, and Sister Haebin growing more impatient, more easily angered, not many have been spared from her wrath.

 "Hongbin," Hakyeon says, voice a hiss of a whisper, anxiety lacing his cracking voice, "Hongbin, let's play a game."

 

 It's the last game that they play.

 

 "A set," Hakyeon's saying stubbornly, lips pursed, fist clenched, as he glares up at the rich couple looming before him. "We're a set! A pair! You can't just separate us!"

 But Hongbin can see, from where he's being gingerly tugged away by Sister Hyeyeon- "Don't make a scene, please, Hongbin,"- that the adults are unrelenting. They've set their eyes on Hakyeon, and Hakyeon's going to leave. He pulls at Sister Hyeyeon's arm, pouting up at her.

 "I wanna stay with him," he says, "Can't he stay?"

 Sister Hyeyeon only smiles sadly and Hongbin nearly screams, pulling frantically so he can go back to Hakyeon, prevent the mean couple from taking him away. But the Sister's grip is firm, and Hongbin can't really do much, only cry out as he's taken back to the bedroom.

 Sister Haebin looks on from the doorway and shakes her head.

 "This is why you'll never get adopted," she says, "Don't make a scene."

 Hongbin freezes, and as the door closes in his face, he remains unmoving. He hears two pairs of feet walk away, and he walks away from the door only to dash back and push himself against it, grunting and whining in pain yet doing it again and again and again.

 Eventually he hears the telltale sound of a car starting, and he rushes to the window, attempting to open it but to no avail. He can feel the sting of tears starting to coat his eyes.

 "Hakyeon!" he shouts, sobs, cries- banging his small fists against the glass and screaming his name.

 Hakyeon is being dragged out of the orphanage, not quite kicking, but screaming and sobbing for Hongbin, burning glares into the backs of his new parents as Hongbin watches from his window, tears streaming from his cheeks, door locked so he's stopped from making a scene.

 "A set!" Hakyeon had insisted, "We're a set!"

 But nobody had listened. The couple certainly hadn't. Sister Haebin certainly hadn't. Sister Hyeyeon and Sojin had watched from afar, wanting to speak but unable to, tongues tied with the fear of the sterner Sister.

 

 Hongbin was made to leave the orphanage at eighteen.

 Nobody wanted the poor, sullen, soot-covered boy.

 

 Red lights spill across the streets, blinding, flashing red lights, club music beating in sync with Hongbin's heart as he leans against a dirty alley wall, wincing at the fresh bruises blooming on his skin, the discomfort when he so much as moves.

 The John shoves a wad of bills in his back pocket. Hongbin resists the urge to spit and sneer. They pay decently, after all, even if his boss does take most of the income for himself.

 Hongbin sighs.

 And in the parking lot of the club across the street, he sees it.

 A familiar face, lady in tow, getting into a car. A navy blue car with white stripes. He lets a smile- no, a grin- to spread widely across his face and he's about to step forward, heart bursting because it's  _Hakyeon._

 But then a completely different car stops before him, and a stranger rolls down the window and asks, "How much?"

**Author's Note:**

> so haebin is kinda like,,, uh,, lowkey miss minchin?
> 
> idk why i wrote this but i blame the fact that i rewatched mary poppins last night fhjk
> 
> anyways oof i hope y'all liked it hdjshs
> 
> leave kudos/comments if you wanna; they feed me djjs
> 
> anyways ly all~ nyx out


End file.
